Youth Guide

I've had an idea to make a guide on how to produce the best youth so people won't start their own threads asking how to devolop the best youth. If anyone wants to add to the guide just post it and I'll edit the post.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Training is one of the least discussed aspects of FM on these forums and one of the most vital aspects of manager involvement ingame. Having drawn many blanks through experimentation and through reading these forums I trawled through the internet looking for FM sites offering an explanation of training.

It didn't take me long to find FMBritain and many indepth studies of training in FM. Two posters in particular lead me to a much deeper understanding of training, but lets just say the language barrier is not condusive to easy reading.

With my desire to understand the mechanics of training and develop my own training schedules in mind, here is my interpretation of the discussion and mechanical revelation I discovered on this site.

Training in Football Manager.

The single most important factor in training in Football Manager is the schedule workload.

The schedule workload determines how much a player develops and improves his attributes, the higher the workload the greater the increase in attributes, and the greater the effect on the players morale due to training. It is in effect a trade-off between the scale of attribute development and the scale of morale penalty. In an ideal FM world the manager wants all players training at the maximum possible workload.

Workload is determined by the quantity of training in each general area under the training schedule; strength, aerobic, tactics, ball control etc. However each area does not contribute an equal increase or decrease or workload.

This is where it gets complicated so please bare with me.

If the overall workload determines the maximum rate at which attributes can improve then the individual workloads for each area determine the rate at which attributes do improve. The relationship between individual areas and the maximum workload is relative and proportional.

Allow me to explain.

Physical training, strength and aerobic, contribute more to the overall workload than all other areas of training, while set peices contribute less to the overall workload.

Imagine you could reach maximum workload with strength training and maximum workload with set peice training alone. If strength training increases the workload by 6x more than setpeice training per click, then you can increase the set peice attributes 6x quicker, or 6x greater than you can increase strength training for the same overall workload.

In other words areas of training that contribute more to the overall training workload improve slower and less dramatically than those areas that contribute less to the overall training workload. This is the proportional part of training. You get more per click, more bang for your buck.

Speaking simply, you can improve attributes quicker by choosing areas of training that contribute less to the overall workload. The more clicks you can get in the training workload before it reaches maximum, the faster attributes will increase.

However.

This obviously means that areas such as strength or aerobic can be improved only at the expense of training in other areas. The proportional system means that not all areas can be improved by the same degree, and that concessions must be made in certain areas. It means also that hardcore training in certain areas may result in dramatic increases, but only in those areas.

Ultimately.

Ultimately the schedule workload is the limit by which your players can increase, and the levels of the areas of training within define how quickly and by how much your players will improve relative to the overall schedule. The greater the level of training in those areas, the greater the increases in those areas.

Proportion.

I am trying to keep this guide as simple as possible, but it is easier to understand the system than it is to explain. If the workload is maxed then the higher the proportions of training in each area, the higher they will increase. The higher you can get the sliders in each area of training the higher those areas will increase. The higher you can get the sliders in relation to overall workload then the higher the attributes will increase overall. By choosing areas that have a lower impact on overall workload you can increase those sliders much higher than sliders that have a large impact, and therefore increase those areas by a greater amount overall. The exact slider mechanics I will discuss next.

Slider Mechanics.

According to my research of the research done by a poster on FMBritain, who by the way requires the thanks of everyone that has downloaded a training schedule on these forums, the slider mechanics are as follows.

There are 25 clicks on the sliders, therefore 26 positions.

Click number 7 or position number 8 is the level at which attributes will be maintained. This is not entireally true but I will explain later. From click number 7 or position number 8 each increase of 3 clicks shows up ingame as an increase in the bar height for the training level of that area.

Click number 13 or position 14 is the level at which attributes will begin to increase, and click number 19 or position 20 is where attributes will no longer increase in size but only increase in speed.

I would suggest personally that position 13 onwards determines the rate and size relative to all combined areas falling under overall workload.

The poster whom I am translating and copying recommands a number of slider clicks equal to 120 for outfield players and 140 for goalkeepers for maximum development but I am not sure about these values.

Youth versus Pro or the PA/CA Question.

If a player has reached their PA then all training does is redistribute their attributes. This means that concessions have to be made for improvements to occur. One could purposely reduce the Strength training of a goalkeeper to a level where it actually diminishes in order to improve the tactical ability of that goalkeeper.

For players that have not reached their PA the issue is different. You can redistribute their attributes in the future, but the issue is to ensure they reach their PA.

What this means is that maximum load training schedules are less important for developed players than the proportional distribution of training. You don't want max level training if it means you cannot redistribute attributes among key areas. For players yet to reach their PA you want to maximise their attribute increases so they reach PA, then redistribute. This means max workload training schedules.

Before I Finish.

I hope that someone with a greater knowledge of training than me comes along and helps turn this guide from near-fact into fact. I do not claim to provide perfect information, merely reinterperate what I have read.

I also wish to make it clear that physical training carries with it the risk of injuries, that high workloads carry with them the risk of low morale.

This game is highly complex and all the better for it, but it does lack a vast quantity of truly informational material regarding how it operates. If this guide helps then I am glad for those that find use for it, but even more glad for that fact that I myself am on the right track.

Thank you for your time, and enjoy FM2009.

Thanks to SFraser for this!

Want to use this guide for the FMWiki?

There is a youth development article on there that is blank at the moment.

I think it would be good to have on it.

Want to use this guide for the FMWiki?

There is a youth development article on there that is blank at the moment.

I think it would be good to have on it.

Ok, thanks, I'll start right away. Could I also keep updating this thread aswell :confused:

Ok, thanks, I'll start right away. Could I also keep updating this thread aswell :confused:

You can update it in the wiki if that's what you mean

I meant update this thread with the same information as FMWiki.

Damn, I was just about to ask for this to be put in out wiki.

Good article with some good points.

I meant update this thread with the same information as FMWiki.

I see no reason why not. Great work by the way.

I see no reason why not. Great work by the way.

Thank SFraser!

Thank SFraser!

Okay, cheers SFraser!

Why are you posting it for him then? Seems a bit strange.

I'm trying to make a thread that contains all the knowledge that will make you porduce better youth players. I just used his training guide as I thought it would be good to have in the thread for youth training.

yes.....although an in-game tip states that too high workloads for young players is not such a good idea

Loans are good. Loan players out. I experimented with this a lot on 07. Loans to the highest quality team avalible are always good.

When i put my players on high workload their attributes start to drop not to increase!!!!!!